2010 Regular Season Begins Sunday for Bears
8/19/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
For the 2010 Mercer Bears women's soccer team the mission is simple: win and you're in. With the ultimate goal of making the 2010 NCAA Soccer Championship, head coach Grant Serafy believes on keeping his philosophy clear and simple – play hard, win the Atlantic Sun Championship and punch your ticket to the big dance.
The Bears began their 2010 march to that goal opening fall practice two weeks ago in preparation for the regular season – a home contest against Georgia Southern on August 22.
Serafy is in his seventh season with the Orange and Black and admits as close as the Bears have come in recent seasons there is still room to improve as he looks to establish the Bears' program as one of the nation's elite.
“I think we felt a little disappointment last season,” Serafy said. “We outshot a lot of teams, but just couldn't get the ball into the back of the net and came up just short in the A-Sun tournament.”
After winning the Atlantic Sun regular season title in 2008, Mercer struggled at times last season, yet were able to finish on a high note losing only one game in its final seven matches. The Bears finished the year 8-6-4 and qualified for their fourth consecutive A-Sun conference tournament – their longest stretch in team history.
“We want our championship back,” Serafy added. “Our motivation is simply to win the Atlantic Sun and qualify for the NCAA tournament. With the talent and experience coming back I think we have a good shot to do that.”
The Bears return 17 letter winners from last year's team, including ten with significant starting experience. Highlighting the returners are All-Atlantic Sun performers junior Olivia Tucker, senior Kacie Hudson and All-Freshman P.A. Upson.
Losing only three seniors to graduation provides the Bears with a wealth of depth and experience at every position on the field. All top six goal scorers from last season return and of the ten players who scored a goal, nine will be uniform come August 22.
“I am confident in the players we have coming back,” Serafy said. “We will have a lot of experience and throw in the mix of the newcomers and I think we will have a very competitive fall camp at many positions.”
Nine freshmen have made their way to Macon this season and Serafy maintains that all positions are up for grabs going into fall practice hoping to drive competition throughout the preseason. Serafy
“I hope we get to that point where all of our players are fighting and working for their spot on this team,” Serafy said. “Building a competitive nature is just part of what we want to accomplish as a program.”
Another aspect that Serafy has implemented since his time at Mercer has been to retool the types of talent and competition he schedules from year-to-year. To achieve that national exposure the Bears have squared off in recent seasons against some of the top programs in the nation including conferences like the SEC and ACC. That has not changed this season as the Bears will see some terrific teams including Florida State and Georgia.
“The goal behind playing top notch programs is to set up ourselves up the best we can for conference play,” Serafy said. “It will be a great test for our team and will better prepare us for what we hope to accomplish this season.”
Mercer will host the preseason No. 6 ranked Seminoles and Georgia on Labor Day Weekend at Bear Field. Among the Bear other non-conference foes include: Colonial Conference member Georgia State on Sept. 3, Xavier of the Atlantic-10 Conference and Mountain West Conference member Air Force.
Among the other new additions to Serafy's program are two welcomed assistant coaches in Jason Russell and Peter Davis. Russell brings in a wealth of coaching and professional playing experience and will run a majority of the recruiting responsibilities and Davis will have an immediate impact with the goalkeepers after graduating from USC-Upstate in 2009.
Russell played professionally with a number of different organizations including the Milwaukee Wave of the National Professional Soccer League. He also had stints with teams in the United Soccer League and most recently has served as the head coach of the girls U-10 and U-14 Tophat Soccer Club in Atlanta.
Here is an in-depth breakdown of the 2010 Mercer Bears
Forwards – The Bears come into fall practice with a nice mixture of experience and young talent at the forward position in 2010. Senior Lauren Johnson and juniors Emily Milone and Emerald Phillips return and two highly regarded freshmen are expected to make a push for playing time throughout the year. Johnson and Phillips tied for second on the team with four goals apiece last season and provide a dose of leadership at the forward position.
Casey Barrett and Nadja Kolliesuah, both from Ohio and teammates on the Ohio Club Premier Eagles club team are quick on the ball and Serafy said both have a great shot at seeing the field this year.
“Nadja and Casey both look sharp,” Serafy said. “They have come in ready to compete and could see some significant playing time this year. We have a good mix of talent up-front with our returners and the freshmen so we are expecting a lot from them this season.”
Midfielders – A strong suit for the Bears last fall were a number of highly capable players at the midfield position. First Team All Atlantic Sun player Olivia Tucker begins her junior campaign as the Bears leading scorer the past two seasons. Tucker scored 8 times and had two assists moving her career totals to 18 goals and four assists – tying her for eighth place all-time in goals.
Senior Kaelyn Horton returns to her defensive midfield position where she has started every game of her career - a stretch of some 58 games. Junior Ali Meek was named to the A-Sun All Freshmen Team a year ago and provides an offensive threat from the midfield as she recorded two goals and three assists last season. However, she is recovering from off-season ACL surgery and hopes to make it back sometime this season.
Senior Sara Elliot assumed a starting role last season and made good on the opportunity by being named an A-Sun Second Teamer. She netted four goals and two assists splitting time as a forward and will again look to be a major contributor this season. Serafy noted that sophomore Danielle Hesse and four freshmen add depth to the position and expects several of them to see the field in 2010.
Defense – The Bears pride themselves in maintaining one of the more dominant defenses in the A-Sun the past several years and it will be no different in 2010. All four of the Bears starters from last season return in seniors Kacie Hudson, Raschelle Riley, Lizzy Shaughnessy and sophomore P.A. Upson.
Hudson leads the talented group of defenders and is a three-time All A-Sun player and Upson was named to the All-Freshmen team a season ago. A deeper look at the stats proved that Bears defense made up a large difference as Mercer had the league's lowest save percentage and yet had the third best goals against in the A-Sun.
Juniors Kate Alderman, Jessie Kupstas, and Vanessa Breslin will work in nicely in the backfield as well. Freshmen Nicole Young, whose brother Ryan plays for the men's team, and Kristen Hagaman will compete and gain experience in their first year.
Goalkeepers – The graduation of three-year starter Jean Worts has left a huge hole in net this year, yet Serafy said he has three highly capable keepers on the 2010 roster that will compete hard for the starting role come August 22. Juniors Cagney Valloch and Cristina Guilarte have over twenty games in goal - seeing plenty of time in a backup role the past two seasons. Freshman Nikki Atkinson comes highly recruited out of McIntosh High School in Peachtree City, Ga. and has seen a significant amount of work during fall camp.
